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Collaborative writing between two friends is a challenge, especially when they live in different time zones and have very different backgrounds. But Molly Best Tinsley and Karetta Hubbard managed to see their project through and produce Satan’s Chamber (Fuze Publishing).
Tinsley, who lives in Ashland but keeps an apartment in Portland, talked to a small crowd at Murder by the Book on Sunday afternoon. It was an informal gathering, with about fifteen people standing between bookshelves, listening and asking questions, and trying not to block the aisle.
According to the books summary, “Junior CIA operative Victoria Pierce is posted to Khartoum, Sudan, where her father vanished five years before. Obsessed with solving the mystery of his disappearance, she uncovers a horrific plot that threatens to ignite World War III. A fast-paced spy thriller, Satan s Chamber shuttles between Washington, DC, and war-torn Sudan, geo-political intrigue and ancient mysticism.”
Hubbard and Tinsley are old friends. Tinsley taught English at the US Naval Academy for twenty years. She has won many awards for her writing, including a Pushcart Prize, the Oregon Book Award and an NEA grant. Hubbard is a businessperson who did consulting, strategic management and organizational change in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. She told Tinsley that when she retired, she wanted to write a thriller. “I was between projects,” Tinsley said. “So I said ‘okay, we should do it together.’”
Tinsley made the comment writers sometimes do about how a brain surgeon can say that when she retires she wants to write a novel, but what about the writer who says when she retires she wants to do brain surgery. People think since they can speak English and enjoy reading stories, Tinsley said, that they should be able to write stories. But it’s a lot of hard work. She said it took her twenty years to be able to do what she does. As a writer, I see her point. But I still think the average brain surgeon’s novel would come out quite a bit better than my attempt at brain surgery.
One audience member asked about the title. Tinsley said it’s a metaphor for Sudan, which is hot, ruthless, and where no human values are sacred, at least on the political level. She quickly added that travel blogs indicate that the normal people are generous and kind.
But Tinsley herself is not a fan of the title, which was Hubbard’s idea from the start. “It sounds like the name of a sex shop in the East Village,” she said. One audience member suggested that could be good for sales.
Satan’s Chamber has three main plot threads: the story of the young agent solving the mystery of her fathers disappearance; that of an older female CIA director; and an invented Sudanese political group called National Identity Movement. It’s a complicated structure, with the plot moving through place and time. Tinsley said it was challenging to synchronize the action between events in the US and Sudan because of the time difference. She has started on a sequel with the same central character, but thinks this time two main plots will be plenty.
Tinsley and Hubbard decided to form their own small publishing company to put their book out. Since chain bookstores seldom carry self-published work, look for Satan’s Chamber at Murder by the Book, In Other Words Women’s Books, or online through the books website.
Image credit Fuze Publishing.
